Dell con-artists

Crabman

Lady_K wrote:

Maybe they sold it her with the 3 yr warranty? they do add that automatically as you prob know unless you chose to opt out of that

No it's the next business day service. And again, this isn't me who ordered. I'm a hardened moneysaver :T unfortunately this lady isn't and has a lot to cope with at the moment so I'm doing what I can to help.

Thanks for your support everyone - it is appreciated. :T

fairytooth

This isn't a 'techie' thread issue at all, just a moan about Dell.

As it happens I agree that your lady friend was seen off a bit, morally speaking. It is life that the cognisenti know when to buy and get a good deal. This is why people buy things at sale time, after all.

I would suggest you wind this one up or move to a more appropriate thread but I'm willing to bet you won't.

Little_John

Crabman wrote:

That's exactly what they've done!! They've upgraded a crappy PC resulting in a decent spec but way high prices. :rolleyes:

Bearing in mind that current prices include on some offers, a 19" screen, I do feel she's been shortchanged. I know the contract has been made etc. but the fact still remains, that if she'd paid that amount of money on a different Dimension system it would have been a lot better.

Don't forget, the only reason we moneysavers are able to "screw" companies as Martin says to do, is because of other consumers who aren't savvy. :rolleyes:

You are correct in saying that she would have got alot more for her money if she had bought the 5150 but at some point the 3100 was mentioned normally by the customer saying I saw the 3100 for £349inc delivery but I want was told a faster processor and more memory would be better. The Dell sales people will only sell what the customer asks for and advise if there is an incompatability problem.

I dont know anyone who sells somthing like say a car or a pc who wouldnt sell the customer what they ask for. If you were buying a car and asked for the basic L model but wanted the metalic paint aircon electric seats mirrors climate control and huge alloys as long as those are options the customer will get them. the fact the LS next model up comes with those as standard that isnt waht the customer asked for for all the sales man knows there may be some other reason why the customer wants the L and not the LS. It is up to the customer to look into what they are buying before buying it.

It does look like she received some advice from a freind that told her to buy the bigest and fastest processor and memory which she did unfortunatly in the wrong model.

The bit about currentl prices including 19" monitors makes jack bit of diference pc entry level specs move all the time, in July the entry level was proberbly 17" she picked the model with a 15" why I dont know I still think it is 17" but is in the process of changeing to 19" as the prices of LCD's drop 19" will become standard.

I would tell your friend she needs to investigate the market alot more before jumping in and buying anything of any value in the future hopfully this lesson will help remind her next time she is making a big purchase, I still know people that dont thingk before buying still and they usually end up with a lemon

Rex_Mundi

Crabman wrote:

I'm sorry I even posted this at all. I was looking for some help from you lot but it turns out MoneySavingExpert.com isn't about helping people, it's about yoyr own personal gain. You should be ashamed of yourself. I'm tryinng to help someone in need, and this is what I get?? :rolleyes:

<snip>

Why bother with the forums if nobody's interested in helping me out here, instead of passing stupid comments along? I know what's happened - I'm not stupid.

I feel these are unfair comments. People on MSE do help out every day. The difference with this thread is that we cant help, it's too late in this instance. As has been explained by many people. This is not any fault of Dells. It is the fault of your friend for not seeking advice before the purchase (I know you wont like that comment, but it's true).

I fully appreciate you wanting to help someone out, but sometimes you have to accept defeat with situations, and use them as a lesson for next time. This is one of them. It is not fair to moan at people just because they are not supporting your (hopeless) position, and are giving you advice you don't want to hear.

Crabman

Rex_Mundi wrote:

I feel these are unfair comments. People on MSE do help out every day. The difference with this thread is that we cant help, it's too late in this instance. As has been explained by many people. This is not any fault of Dells. It is the fault of your friend for not seeking advice before the purchase (I know you wont like that comment, but it's true).

I fully appreciate you wanting to help someone out, but sometimes you have to accept defeat with situations, and use them as a lesson for next time. This is one of them. It is not fair to moan at people just because they are not supporting your (hopeless) position, and are giving you advice you don't want to hear.

Not many have given advice; they've just had a go at me for whatever reason .

Look, I know she's in a hopeless situation, that's why I came here, because normally I get some really good advice here :think: I don't mind people saying that it's too late - I know, but it won't stop me from getting her to call up Dell and ask why the spec she was given on the phone differs to what she actually got on the invoice. I take it nobody can help with this because they've already made a fool of themselves beforehand? :rolleyes:

And no they [my] aren't unfair comments - look through the thread from my perspective and tell me that I've been given helpful advice.

Rex_Mundi

Crabman wrote:

but it won't stop me from getting her to call up Dell and ask why the spec she was given on the phone differs to what she actually got on the invoice.

This issue is different from the one you started this thread with. You are now saying she has received a different spec than she ordered. When you started the thread (and the one that people based their advice on) was that you thought she had not got value for money on what she bought........

Crabman wrote:

A friend of mine has got a Dimemsion 3100 with Pentium 4 (2.8Ghz) 512MB RAM, but a piddly 15" TFT, no DVD Rewriter, no optical mouse.

Considering they paid £540 for it, shouldn't they have had a better system?? I got my Inspiron 6000 for cheaper than this desktop.

It was delivered around 26th July I think, so do you think it's worth phoning Dell and complaining?? I want to because it isn't value for money that they have been given here.

rogerramjet

Having read through the posts, it appears that there are discrepancies with what she was told she was getting to what was received. namily the smaller hard drive and no dvd writer. Both these items are likely to be overlooked as not being the correct spec to a non PC savvy person ( I regularly speak to people who think they have a dvd writer in their computers who when I check notice its a dvd rom) and therefore to contact them so late after delivery in my mind does not seem unreasonable. I would aslo question the warranty...was this miss sold? again to someone not PC savvy it would be easy to tell someone they need a warranty which is over the top for home use (next day exchange!!!) and I would reccomend this being raised.

Instead of messing around with call centres to complain, email Gwen_Wight@Dell.com who unless her job has changed was Business Operations Manager. You may get no-where, but then what is there to lose by sending an email.

Best of luck

A_Nice_Englishman

You have received some useful advice on how to take this up with Dell.

albertross says that they may have recorded the telephone conversation

I pointed to a thread in which people have discussed ways they have successfully complained to Dell

Chippy_Minton has shown how to check what Dell's records say the spec of the PC is.

I suggest you:

Check the spec in the invoice with that of the actual PC and that found by following Chippy_Minton's instructions and see if there are any discrepancies. Don't forget about the software and warranty.

Email one of the addresses given in the thread I referenced and ask them to listen to the recording of the sale (if there was one) and see if there are any further discepancies in the spec agreed. Also ask them whether they feel the sales person was misleading in any way.

If you do this at least you will know you will have done everything you can to help your friend. You can also take comfort from the fact that somebody else may see this thread and avoid the same happening to them.

Then move on and try to help her save money in other ways to make up for what you feel is the bad deal she got from Dell.

Little_John

Crabman, you have witheld information from us that made everythingposted by people above corect on the info we received Rex quoted you on your origianl post and it nowhere mentions that she received a PC not matching the spec she was sold, if this is the case then she has a claim but your original post was sayin she bought a pc in July and paid £540 the spec was reasonable it was just missing a few parts that are now becomming standard with a pc in that price range, dvd writer and larger monitor and dell have addjusted their website and sell the base pcs with those options.

you also mentioned that she had problems that could mean anything, how are we suposed to know what is happening?

You got stroppy at the replies you didnt like and pretty much ignored the ones giving you advice and offering possible comeback against Dell. Seeing as yu are going to do what you want just phone Dell and see what they say how are we supposed to know the best way to get dell to say yes were were wrong no problem we will give you back your money and take the pc back onthe info you gave us there was no way that would happen, the aditional info about it not being as speced could now make that happen.

wolfman

Crabman wrote:

I'm sorry I even posted this at all. I was looking for some help from you lot but it turns out MoneySavingExpert.com isn't about helping people, it's about yoyr own personal gain. You should be ashamed of yourself. I'm tryinng to help someone in need, and this is what I get??

Why doesn't someone PM Martin and tell him to stuff the MSE Charity donations? Why bother with the forums if nobody's interested in helping me out here, instead of passing stupid comments along? I know what's happened - I'm not stupid.

Firstly, what's your problem? I'm rather offended by those comments. I can see you want help/advice, but you're going completely the wrong way of getting it. And comments like the above are just going to turn people away, so you're effectively doing the opposite of helping her.

Secondly, from the initial posts, you didn't mention anything about receiving a computer different from the specification agreed. You just mention that she didn't get value for money. In that kind of situation there's little you can do, it's just something you have to accept and learn from for the future.

Thirdly, ok so you've now given us more detail about the situation. If Dell did agree a spec with you, but you received a lower spec, then yes you should get straight onto the phone to Dell. In fact I would have thought this to be quite an obvious first port of call, and something I'd suggest you do rather than upsetting more people on here.

Finally, I know it's related to technical equipment, but your situation is more of a legal one. We'll do our best to give advice, but for many of us it won't be our forte, this being a techie board in all.